A Day That will live

Today is a day that we should all reflect…
Really, most of you know I am a Navy brat; my claim to fame is that I was almost born in Canada… still pretty bitter about not having a dual citizenship.
Maybe today affects me more because of the town I mostly grew up in Vallejo was the home of Mare Island Naval Shipyard. Just about my entire family worked out there at some point. My maternal Grandfather wasn’t allowed to sign up after Pearl Harbor, his job on the shipyard was far too important, that didn’t set too well with him at all. My Grandmother had a cousin that was at Pearl Harbor… He had just gotten off of duty and being a good Irish Catholic went straight to church, that’s where he was when his bunk was blown up. My other Grandfather missed the bombing only because the ship that he was on went out earlier than planed for “maneuvers training” they were several miles the other way and didn’t make it back to pearl until the next day. Something that happened years before my mother and father were even born should affect me is somewhat baffling. I have been to the memorial and it effected me deeply. It’s truly hard to put into words the feeling that you get while out there over the sunken ship… So in honor of the fallen, in honor of the day. Please take a moment.

Wiggles

People are just finding out that one of the guys from the football field. I don’t get it… you have people that would kill to be healthy and others that are just bent on killing themselves giving themselves heart problems at the age of 16!! Crazy I tell you!!
We tell the kids to go out and get involved with a sport to be healthy so they aren’t sitting there in front of the TV, computer or game system. So in order to play the sport they need to gain weight to the point it damages their hearts… Insane.
I will pull my kids from sports before I allow a coach to tell them to gain weight or loss too much! There needs to be a balance...

What we did this summer:

It’s the age ole question one that causes you to think on how you spent your time while not in school…

Unlike other summers where all of our time is spent getting ready, doing and cleaning up after a faire we had time… time to clean up the back yard. Time to go camping. Time to do swim lessons, summer school and internships.

We went camping (well Miss Bee and I) a grand total of four times… Once to the Russian River with Grandma, Sparkles, Froggy, and Sparkles BF… just for the weekend but the kids had a great time playing in the river and just relaxing, it was really HOT that weekend but still the river was great fun. The next camping trip involved friends and Miss Bee and I again to the river and with more kids (two god children and one YOTC) we had a fire both nights, good food and great company. Then Grandma, Sparkles, Froggy, Miss Bee and myself packed up for a week in Yosemite!!! That was great fun! We managed to hike up to three waterfalls: Bridalvail, Vernal and Yosemite falls the hardest one being Vernal but we made it all of us and Miss Bee hiked like a champ! We also hiked to thru the Mariposa meadows and up to Sentinel dome the second highest peek it was wonderful! Now we have to get Grandma’s camera to give up the pictures! Technology doesn’t like Grandma very much it hides things from her… or so she claims. The last trip was the three-day-weekend Miss Bee and myself went up to Yuba Gap in the Sierra Nevada mountain range and set up the site, Grandma and Froggy joined us Saturday after his football game. Then my sister and Brother-in-law joined us for one day also, it was a really great weekend!! We will have one more weekend in Oct we will spend the weekend at Apple Hill. GREAT Fall fun!

Camping is one of my fav things to do for me its relaxing. We play cards, just sit and read, just sit, get away from stuff…

All Things New

Just wanted you to know that Sparkles is now part of the working force... she has a job, not a babysitting job, not a volunteer job but a real paying job... she is working for Papa Murphy's Take and Bake Pizza... she starts training Today.

Now I am of mixed feelings about this job thing on the one hand she needs the job to help pay for her insurance and gas money and her Senior Year (I am already trying to figure out the bill for that one: Homecoming, year book, senior pictures, Washington DC trip, Grad night, Prom, Graduation....)(UGH!!) And now with the new driving laws until the kids are 18 they have a driving curfew of 11pm. good right? But for Prom night well that means a Limo... so she wants a job to be able to get the extras... But on the other hand she has, well her Senior year... she has one College class that she needs to take in order to graduate and to finish her internship, and to well do her Senior project to be presented at the Washington DC trip, she normally does Color Guard and she is talking about dropping that (which I have mixed feelings about) then there is all the committees that she wants to be on: Prom and Senior activities I don't think she said anything about yearbook but I know that she was really upset about how it was done last year. Whew! I just hope she can juggle it all... I know she has watched the best of the best (Barbara) let’s see if she can put what she has learned into practice.

The other wonderful news is Froggy... he will be a freshman this year and instead of signing up for Soccer he signed up for Football... Now Froggy has put on quite a few inches he is 14 years old and is 5 foot 5... but still a rail thin guy... Think build of say a string bean. So I will be on the bleachers every Friday night hoping (a) that they play him - he is a freshman and (b) he doesn't get hurt... they are trying him for kicker (he played Soccer for many years as a goalie he can kick) but they were also talking about the guy that passes the ball back to the quarterback (Center?) you know the one that gets mushed since everyone is trying to get to the QB... lovely... fun... just what I wanted him to do... ugh but I don't tell him that I just grin and tell him he can do it! Ugh the things you do and say when you are a Mom.
(note after writing this he came home from practice and :They have signed him up for Receiver… panic ensues.)

Luckily the only thing Miss Bee right now wants to do is go to swim lessons which she is doing quite well at and really loves but I am lucky in the respect that all of my kids have the love of water that I have. Miss Bee is even starting to do a freestyle stroke (well kinda) its really cool to watch. I sit there and watch my kids and wonder “God I hope that my Mom had as much fun watching us and I do my kids”... and really all parents should have this much fun watching their kids try something new and succeed at it or at least do their very best. I may complain about Prom or Football or whatever but really I love watching them grow and expand and not be afraid to try something. To attack the world with such fearlessness...

I am proud of Froggy for not staying at home and playing video games and for going to the football field. I am proud of Sparkles for going out and getting a job, and proud of Miss Bee for loving swimming lessons even if she doesn't get the same teacher each session. Even if I am scared, concerned or even doubtful that they can manage all that they take on I am very proud of them and I wouldn't tell them any different.

Promotion

Praise youth and it will prosper ~ Irish Proverb

Promotion... instead of graduation is what they call it now... and Frogs was Promoted to HIGH SCHOOL last night... WOW... I have this image in my head of him playing rounders, not at faire but at a park in Oakland when he was very little... its very hard to believe that he will be in High School, a freshman... They grow up far to fast, of course Mr Sullen Teenager doesn't believe that a big deal should be made about this but its a milestone none the less... Last night while doing my Mom duty of helping out the school, making sure that all the kids were in the lines they were supposed to be and NOT chewing gum, and making sure their cell phones were turned OFF!! Its like herding cats… “No you can’t climb that on that table, NO really I need you to stay with the rest of the class, NO I don’t know when we are going to start.”

One of his old teachers showed up, this particular teacher is the type that makes an impact on all of his students and for reasons that where his alone he had to go back out to the corporate work force leaving the school a situation neither he, the kids or the school wanted. Anyway he showed up and all the kids were very happy, even Frogs, he walked down the lines he talked with each and every one of them! And when he walked out of the hallway that we had the kids lining up in, he was crying. The kids on the other hand were just so happy to see him they didn’t realized what kind of impact they made on him how proud he was of them and how much he missed the chaos that is Middle School. I was privileged to be a part of that to see the kids really just so happy to see this teacher of theirs, to watch just how nervous some of them were, to see how much fun that they all have together and I realize that for him (the sullen teenager) this is the last time that I will do that… I mean when they graduate High School a Jr. parent is involved with the behind the scenes stuff. I only have to be there and sit in my seat and wait for it all to begin or end depends on how you look at it…

Its strange to see your children grow up you know its coming but you still don’t think that it will ever get here and then it is and you don’t know where the time went.

Weekend business

Okay so the last few weekends have been “get things done weekends”… we have done yard work, dump runs, and garage sales. We have more yard work to do and now that the garage sale is over maybe one more dump run…

The kids have been a wonderful help. NO really they have! Even the sullen 14-year-old! And of course the 4-year-old is always great help (she says drolly). I feel like we have really accomplished something and this summer we will continue to do weekend ‘work parties’! So I am going to keep a list here simply because it will keep me honest and I can update the list as I go.

1) Plant the veggies for the garden
2) Finish cleaning up the back yard
3) Paint the living room
4) Clean up the garage now that a lot of stuff is gone time to re organize
5) Clean gutters
6) Hang shade cloth on those windows that get way too much sun
7) Paint the hallway
8) Get camping stuff together
I am hoping that with this list of “things to do” I will get some things done, lets see how I do!

Alice

Again just a little something that I found funny...

"How can one possibly pay attention to a book with no pictures in it?"

~ Alice, bored with her history lesson.
Alice in Wonderland, 1951

My Commute

Okay really within the Bay Area my commute is one of the best I am sure only topped by my Mom’s commute which was walking the block to the school she used to work at that was a rough one. Really I drive 30 miles each way, away from The City and through some salt marshes and vineyards… tragic I know.

Over the last week or so some very interesting stuff has been happening on my normally non-exciting commute that I just have to share.

Tuesday on the way home I have to come to a quick halt all the time saying ‘geese, geese, geese…” my friend that I was talking to on the phone must have thought I was insane (okay she knows I am but really that’s not the point). So I am driving down a two-lane highway when waddling across the road is a family of geese… Momma, Dad, and three baby goslings, walking like they don’t have a care in the world and didn’t just make two people come to an abrupt halt in order not to run any of them over… One parent in front of the flock and one parent in the back herding three baby geese across the highway safely. I could just hear the Momma scolding the Daddy… “I told you to wait, why do we need to go this way? You are going to get us killed!” OR “We are walking, walking” Or something along those lines. It was very comical so much so that myself and the other lady who had to stop coming the opposite direction was laughing at the little family as the waddled themselves across the road.

Wednesday morning I had to stop and get gas (don’t get me started on how much I had to pay to fill my tank… its really sad when you get happy that you are paying 2.99.9 a gallon!) anyway on my way to the gas station I am driving past a construction site and what do I see some guy driving a bulldozer out into traffic. I am sure he was taking the dirt in his bulldozer somewhere it needed to go but he was on his cell phone!! While he is driving a multi-ton vehicle on the ‘real’ road he should not be on his cell phone… I KNOW there are laws against that. If there isn’t there should be!

Also this week as I was driving home one evening on HWY 37… think two lane highway with a wall dividing the road simply because there were too many head on collisions bordered by salt marshes on either side… 10 mile stretch of road that is some of the most beautiful views … really. So what happens I am driving a pretty good clip seeing as its about 5:30 in the evening traffic is going about 45 – 50 miles an hour not too bad. When behind me there comes a motorcycle along the shoulder and he passes me like I am going 10 miles an hour!!! He is on the shoulder of one of the roads that has more accidents than I care to think about… good grief!! I like driving what I don’t like is when other people take my life into their selfish hands.

I just had to share.

Mother day

"But Mother, I don't want to grow up!" ~ Wendy, from Peter Pan, 1953

So Mother's day was nice...
Went over to my sister's house to have Mother's Day Brunch made by by BIL, SIL and my kids. Wonderful day spent in the backyard, while Ms Bee played in the sprinklers and the grown ups drank mimosas...

I enjoy days like that were we sit around, talk, play, and just relax... it was good.

Easter fun

So the older kids are too old to hunt for Easter eggs or so they think but they had a lot of fun hiding them… of course the youngest one LOVED to Easter egg hunt until one of her Uncles told her that they none of the eggs were good eggs since they weren’t full… so poor Miss Bee is running around the yard picking up little plastic Easter eggs and tossing them aside because they didn’t rattle… ergo they are empty and no good so says her Uncle… she found three that were “full” (a smaller egg had been stored in a larger egg) so she did find some… But here she is picking up eggs shaking them to see if they rattle and when they don’t she tosses them aside just in time for one of her cousins to come in after her and pick up her rejects. Sigh… later in the day we did another egg hunt and she was told that all of them were good eggs and she ran around with great delight picking up as many eggs as would fit in her basket. So not to scared…

Events beyond my control

So this weekend on the way to yet another and second to the last Color Guard event for the season, Sparkles, Ms Bee and I were driving down the freeway it was raining (again). The windshield wipers stop working… I am in the fast lane and the rain is coming down with a vengeance. So I try to very calmly exit the freeway… with out being able to see really well and all the while explaining the driver in training that when faced with a situation like this the best thing to do is get off the freeway as quickly and as SAFELY as we can! So I get off the freeway pull in to the first parking lot I find and pop the hood… NO I do not have much mechanical knowledge… I know how to check and add the oil, windshield wiper fluid, the break fluid and the transmission fluid and coolant. I know where the fuses are and the air filter… After many hours watching ex boyfriends and friends work of their cars I do know a little bit but really what did I think I was going to do but what do you do when your car stops working you pop the hood and hope that something jumps out with a sign that says… FIX ME!!! Anyway I am able to identify what I think is the motor for the windshield wipers and I play with the wires that are going into the box… and they start working again… so I laugh and get back into the car and continue down the road.

Later that day (yes its raining on and off) once we get to the event I am walking up a ramp and I slip and fall… kinda twist my left ankle and really banged my right knee. YEP I am a mess. My only defense is there was no music so I do not have to be graceful.

So Sunday really goes well we have a friend come over and put in some lights for us and then we all head off to a wedding of a really dear friend… the afternoon off with out a hitch. My knee kinda bothered me but only when I was carrying Ms Bee. So I did not carry her made her three year old little legs carry her.

Monday shows up and its sunny and brite news said no rain until late in the evening… I try the windshield wipers and nothing… I open the hood and play with the same wires and nothing. So the news said not rain until later I will go to work and call the auto shop, make an appt for later in the afternoon to have the car fixed KNOWING its going to rain… it started raining early… at noon. So I call the auto shop tell them that there is no way for me to make the appt and can I bring it in first thing in the morning? No problem… Now how to get home? Luckily one of my co-workers lives in the same town as I do so she lead me home in the rain with me trying to see in between the rain drops… stressful to say the least. Tuesday the car is fixed and it only cost $300.00 electrical problem…

Meanwhile my knee is starting to really cause me some concern so I go to the Dr (also Monday night) and get some x-rays just to make sure I did not really pull a number on it… I like not being in pain when I dance, walk or carry my child. Anyway the ER Dr said “Well it looks like it COULD be a plateau fracture of the tibia but I am not sure Ortho will have to look at later on but right now lets put you in a cast….”

I think about this for about .5 seconds and say “I would rather that we not put it in a cast until we know for sure one way or the other can I get away with a brace of some kind?” He agreed and so I am now hobbling around in a knee immobilizer…sucks! Appt on Friday for Ortho… I don’t believe its broken I am in some pain but I have to believe that if it were really broken I would really feel it.
And if that were enough this week is crazy it’s the last week of colorguard, the whole season has been leading up to this week… we had two comps last weekend, and this week we have one exhibition on Wed and then leave on Friday for the Tournament Of Champions. So pretty much between practices and shows I had one day off from CG, Oh yeah that was Monday… busy, busy, busy week. I have to say I do not feel in control this week at all.

Parenting

I don’t consider myself an expert on parenting. I make mistakes and my children make mistakes. BUT I get a little amazed when people are amazed with my kids, how they act, how they talk, when they sleep. This last weekend we were at a color guard competition for Sparkles it normally takes a good part of the day if not all day… Saturday was no exception we left the house at 1pm and didn’t get home until after 11pm. LONG day… Froggy doesn’t like to go but Miss Bee does, Sparkles has been competing for the last five years this is the beginning of season six, this has been part of our lives for a while and Miss Bee has been there since before birth. She sits for hours watching other teams, playing nicely with her little toys and books. I make sure we have enough treats and drinks. When she was really little it was very easy just to let her nurse and no one even noticed. When she got a little older potty training was a little fun, bathrooms weren’t always close by but we managed and she did great! The other parents that have been doing this as long as I have love to bring little snacks (and they ask me first) or occupy her with little stuff ooh’ing and ahaa’ing over her drawings, books, or toys… we do this for seven weekends, eight competitions the last one being an all weekend thing. Miss Bee always is mostly well behaved and generally calm and self contained.

This particular weekend was nothing out of the norm but one of the other families brought their two year old with them, they don’t normally bring her and let me tell you she was a small terror. She crawled over everyone and wanted everything and was just so tired that she really just couldn’t see straight… I am not delusional enough to think that my children have never acted that way BUT when they have I am hoping that I have disciplined them, taken them out of the situation, and/or apologized for their behavior. This parent didn’t do half of that about the second time that the baby screamed and cried they finally took her out of the gym. When she finally fell asleep and she only slept for about 30 min. Miss Bee crawled into my lap and put her head on my shoulder and fell asleep and slept for about 1.5 hours…slept through Sacramento State Drum Line performance. Did I say that these comps are done inside in a basketball gym? Miss Bee can sleep anywhere and through anything for that matter so can Froggy and Sparkles.

I don’t think that I demand too much from my kids but I do require them to behave in many situations. Another child (not with our group) was running around the floor in-between comps. The teams have 10 mins to set up, perform, and tear down. Some of them have props and floors, ect. This child started to run around the floor as another team was starting to set up and she nearly tripped the student that was setting up, it was a little dangerous not only for the team setting up but for the child and the parent did nothing… and didn’t stop the kid from running around again it took a line judge to go over and talk to the parent and probably let them know that it was an unsafe situation and to keep the child off the floor. We couldn’t believe that it took a line judge to talk to the parent… it astounded us to know end. I then made the comment that “I would kill my child if they acted like that” I was then told that my children would act like that because they have a better sense of responsibility or etiquette. That I have a better sense of responsibility or etiquette I never really thought of it that way… The PARENT needs to have the sense of responsibility/ etiquette. How can we teach the child if the parent has no clue, how do we expect the child to know if the parent doesn’t?

I have had many compliments about my kids everything from ‘they are false advertising’ to ‘I wish there were more kids on the plane like yours’. I am always surprised on the compliments they are always unexpected sometimes in my brain I am remembering the times that they didn’t do their chores or talked back to me instead of listening, It gives me a sense of pride to know that even if I think that they can be rotten children and deserving of a weeks worth of restriction that other people think them well behaved human beings.

I don’t know if I expect/demand too much from them or if the rest of the world doesn’t expect/demand enough from everyone else. I do know that I am proud of my children. I am happy that I can take them traveling, dinner out (fancy), to parks, to social gatherings, to weddings and they know how to act and most of the time will do it without embarrassing the heck out of me!! The only thing that I can think of that I do with my kids is I bring them places… always have, always will. I have often said “have baby will travel” they have slept on hay bales, in cars, at soccer games, and during drum comps. I also believe that if they don’t experience HOW can they know how to act? You have to teach them so that they know.

I am proud of my kids and I am in constant amazement that they are as graceful, thoughtful, caring, helpful and wonderful as they are…

Batteries

So the other night I was getting Miss Bee ready for bed and she looks out the window and exclaims:
“Mommy the Sun is going down…”
I say “yes it is”
she says “I guess it needs new batteries…”
so after I giggle a little and try to tell her that the Sun is really going to the other side of the world to give the other people light I put her to bed and walk away still giggling and amazed at the thoughts of a Three year old…


Batteries and Tape fix everything… I wish life were that simple.

The epic move

This last weekend we have moved around the kid’s bedroom. Froggy gets a different bed and we have tried to move it so that he will get more privacy from his little sister. But of course that meant selling the old bed, taking apart old bed, buying a new bed, putting together new bed, ‘cleaning’ the bedroom and re-arranging the whole thing!

Massive undertaking.

We started out one weekend just cleaning the bedroom… I was surprised to see how much Froggy was able to ‘let go of’ I guess being 14 and in the whole I don’t care mode works well in this case.

The next weekend we started by taking apart the old bunk beds, carrying the mattress down stairs to sit in the living room and making the bed a pile of lumber and bolts. Just in time for the person who was buying it to pick it up and take it away. Craigslist is a wonderful tool!

Next comes putting the new bed together with the help from a friend of ours the three of us managed to get it put together. For the record I hate it when the directions come in diagrams only and NO really written instructions. While putting this bed together we are rearranging the room… moving things around trying to give the 14 year old some privacy. So we ended up moving the bookshelf three times and this isn’t any small bookshelf its one of the big ones about 6 feet tall so we have to unload it, move it, re load it, figure out it didn’t work, unload it again, move it, re load it. CRAZY!! So we get it all arranged and the bed put together and the room settled a little and stuff… it wasn’t so bad…

Now to go to work on the garage.

I do have to say the Froggy was a great help in all that needed to be done you know once you get him motovatied to move he really does it and mostly enjoys himself.

Relax

For Christmas this year I received the BEST present that anyone could get… a gift cert for a 1 hour massage… ahh bliss

So why was it that I couldn’t just relax? The massage was great and she was wonderful but for whatever reason my brain just couldn’t shut off… I keep thinking of the things that I have to do making a mental list: 1. Laundry 2. Clean living room 3. Take clothes to the good will. 4. Pay bills. And the list continues. So I would mentally shake myself and try to put myself in a relaxing state…

Think of the ocean sitting there watching the sunset, hearing the waves crash upon the shore… my brain then takes another turn and I start to think about the past and faire and “the great Shinning Ocean!” the fun times that I had the wonderful people that I have met, the people that are no longer with us, the people we just don’t see anymore because life changes. Okay brain still is roaming about… think of something else.

Green trees, forest the sounds of water flowing by in the creek, I am swinging in a hammock and its warm but I am in the shade the wind is blowing softly through the leafs and the evergreens… some how I start thinking about what I need to pick up at the store: 1. Lunch stuff. 2. Salad makings. 3. Cat litter. STOP it!

Meanwhile the massage continues and she is working hard to relive me of my knots in the shoulders that I own… its great but I can’t get my brain to shut down… I try to focus on the lovely music that is playing in the background it’s a wonderful instrumental piece that is slightly Indian in sound. Its nice but it doesn’t quite get me to completely shut down my brain… NOPE that is still working. I have now started to think about what kind of exercise program I want to start, I have lost some weight but now its time to start exercising so that I can lose more and tone what I have… I would like to swim but life being the way it is I don’t know if that will work so my brain starts to work on schedules on how it would work and how do I get the kids were they need to go and pick them up from where they need to be picked up from… or do I just get up early every morning and do some kind of exercise tape. I give up… I give in I start to just breathe and plan and let my brain take me where its going to take me and try to relax through that…

The upshot is I know what chores need to be done at the house, what I need to pick up from the market for this weekend, I think I have a plan on what I can do by way of an exercise program, the menu for next week’s dinners are planned. I have thought through what needs to happen for the next few days: school meetings, work deadlines, field trips, and the children’s schedule as well. So maybe the massage was worth it, maybe I really did relax or at least got some very good planning in I would like to try to stop my brain from working… I guess it means another massage. DARN or I could always try this.

Figment

So we spent Christmas in Dinseyworld. One of the attractions in Epcot is called Figment at the end of the ride we are able and invited to play with computer programs and we made this picture of Ms. Bee... Cute huh? I have to say that the trip on the whole was a great time... it was so needed and we had been saving/planning for quite awhile for this trip... I know we shouldn't have gone only becuase DH has been out of a job for several months but god it was so much fun!
The kids and I had a great time... My mom and a very close friend also joined us also had a great time, DH was sick most of the time and spent alot of time in the hotel I was sorry that he wasn't able to spend more time with us at the parks... Anyway Froggy was your typical 13 year old, grumpy teenager, Sparkles was I think enjoying the whole trip nicely and Ms Bee was loving every single mintue of it... she say most of the Princesses and all of the fireworks, some parades and went on the ride that she wanted to go on Dumbo! I had a great time watching everyone else and relaxing, not stressing on where I needed to be or what I needed to be doing... it was a wonderful vacation and a great way to spend the holidays. There was no well its Christmas morning we have to get up make breakfast so we can open presents and run over the other family to open presents there to the run somewhere else and pick up this or drop of that... Christmas morning we woke up, walked to go and get Bengets (small donuts things...) and hot coffee or hot chocolate and wonder what park we were going to spend the day... We ended up in MGM to make sure we watched Fantasmic for Christmas day... Wonderful... Fantasmic is my all time favorite fireworks/piro/muscial display... LOVE IT!! Counting the days until I can go back... Truly a magical place.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles…

So starting at some point in September my ex voiced the idea that he would like to have Sparkles and Froggy join him in Las Vegas with his family for Thanksgiving… Okay fine we do the whole trading holiday thing and it generally works okay… I say generally. Well this year he wanted to save money in transportation by having his Brother drive the kids out to Las Vegas were the family would be meeting to spend the holidays. Well one hitch if the brother’s wife went then there wouldn’t be enough room in the car for both kids, if the wife didn’t go then no problem there would be plenty of room. The other issue we would not know until a few days before they were supposed to go how they would get there and in what form of transportation they would be taking and what my role would be in the getting them to the form of transportation. Needless to say I wasn’t pleased… I like to know what is going on, I can be spontaneous, but when it comes to a trip that involves taking time off of work or arranging babysitting or something of that sort, a little advance notice is great. And quite frankly necessary contrary to popular belief I am not at the beck and call of my ex husband… EX being the most important part of that phrase. Okay enough of that rant.

So here it is the week before Thanksgiving and the kids don’t know if they are seeing the family or if they will be left home. Where they love my family they see them all the time they don’t get to see the other part of their family but once or twice a year. So my Ex calls and wanted to know if he could come and take them out of school for two days so that he can drive down from Idaho take them home back to Idaho and then drive them down to Las Vegas. I said NO. Then he wanted me to drive them to Reno where we would meet and then he could drive them the rest of the way down to Las Vegas. I said NO.

So this is what really ended up happening. The kids got on the Train in Martinez up to Reno were during the trip some moron drove their truck onto the tracks where it got caught in the tunnel so they were late meeting their Dad (which is just as well he is normally late so much better that he had to wait then them). Once in Reno the then drove the rest of the way down to Las Vegas. They spent a nice Thanksgiving with their Grandparents, assorted Aunts, Uncles and Cousins. On the way home… Sparkles went home via Airplane and Froggy went home via Uncle’s car. The Airplane was late arriving which wasn’t too bad I was almost late for work but really not an issue… the Brother (Uncle) miss judged the traffic coming home from Las Vegas to California and ended up doing a 100 mile stretch in 7 hours. Now I would have stopped and maybe even turned around but not the Uncle… so they got in around 3am and Froggy ended up missing a day of school.

The moral of the story… THERE WILL BE NO LAST MINTUE HOLIDAY PLANS. If the ex wants the kids next year then the travel plans must be made no later than 20 days in advance of departure.
SO SAYS MOM… LAW HAS BEEN MADE.

Thanksgiving

Yeah I know its late but I just found it already writen so here it is...


So this year for Thanksgiving the family went off in several different directions.

Sparkles and Froggy went on a trip to see their Fathers side of the family (read Planes, Trains and Automobiles). DH and Miss Bee went to see his family for dinner. I stayed home, went over to my foster Brothers house for one dinner and then over to see my Mom.

I have to say that in the now five Thanksgivings since my Grandmother passed away and the extended family has scattered to the four corners of the universe I really don’t enjoy the holiday as much as I used to…

Thanksgiving to me used to mean a time to get with my very large family (we have numbered in the 40’s for dinner) for a lot of laughter and bonding. I miss it a lot. I have 12 cousins and most of them have S/O’s and/or children… so even logistically speaking getting everyone to eat in the same place was getting very hard, but very fun. Most of our family jokes all came form one Thanksgiving or another and a lot of our family traditions have come from those meals as well.

To say that we need to start our own traditions and our own holidays is not the same I can make all the same recipes and feed my family with my Mom and Sister but really its not the same I miss seeing my Aunts and Uncles, cousins and the orphans that always ended up at the table. The laughter and the jokes, the food and the leftovers, watching for the first time one of the ‘kids’ are allowed to drink wine with dinner. Seeing all the new babies and how much the kids have grown, reconnecting with my family.
The general chaos of the day…

We had great times I have wonderful memories I don’t want them to be just that memories. I want them to be living breathing moments. Maybe next year I will see if we can all get together again… I would have to rent a hall. :)