My little sister graduated from Tarrant County College Friday night with a Physical Therapy Assistant degree. She still has to take an exam to get her license, but she has her first job all lined up and will start on June 30th. She obviously inherited that "compassionate, helping people" gene from our registered nurse mother. I have a computer science degree . . . in other words, I'm not the person from my family you want around should you get sick or something.
I can't imagine how difficult it must be to go to college when you have two little kids at home and a traveling salesman husband who is some times at home, but often times not. When I went to college, I could watch soap operas, play intramural sports, and layout in the sun after class. In the evenings, I could go to Frat parties, to a movie, or cruise the local bar scene, then come home at midnight and study, if I had test the next day.
I didn't have to worry about anyone's laundry other than my own. I didn't have to worry about trying to find time to study and being a good Mother at the same time. I didn't have to worry about helping anyone with homework, or what to cook my family for dinner, or making sure my kids had a costume for Ellis Island Day.
Stacy managed all that and much, much more. I'm very proud of her.
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I meant to take a picture, but never got around to it. Mark picked out a smallish teddy bear, a package of "Happy Birthday" Hershey's kisses, and a "Happy Birthday" mylar balloon. The bear was in a sort of half box and the kisses fit just right for the bear to hold them. He tied the balloon on one of the bear's arms. It turned out nice. He said that she liked it.
I'd never seen the "Happy Birthday" Hershey's kisses before. We found them at Wal-Mart and of course they are about the same price as a bag of generic Hershey's kisses four times the size. But the b-day ones were wrapped in bright colored foil in multiple colors and the little paper thingies all said "Happy Birthday". They were cute.
They also had some other varieties such as "I Love You", "It's a Boy", "It's a Girl", etc. The next time someone I know has a baby, I hope I get a package of those, instead of a bubblegum cigar!
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Once upon a time, I was an 11 year-old girl. I have no idea what sort of thing I was "into", but it was probably something like basketball, softball, or skateboards. And, I have no recent practical experience with buying b-day gifts for 11 year-old girls.
Mark had settled in on a webkinz as a b-day gift for C, his new girlfriend. But a couple of her friends told him that while she likes webkinz, she doesn't really like them all that much. One of her best friends went the extra mile and provided Mark with this list of ideas (her spelling, not mine):
- cookies with baloon
- jewlery like earings or a neckales
- a card and rose
- teddybear
- shoes
- earings
- decorate her locker and bring her a small cake
Shoes? Shoes?! LOL! Next time Eric asks me what I want for Mother's Day/Birthday/Anniversary, I'm going to say shoes. Like he would have a clue as to how to buy me shoes and we've been married for almost 23 years!
Mark wants me to bake cookies or to show him how to bake cookies. Which if he were just taking her something to school, would be fine. But, I think taking her cookies and a balloon to her birthday party (he did get an "official" evite) is . . . well, I don't know what it is, but it doesn't seem like a proper b-day gift to me.
I guess Mark and I will be going on a little shopping trip this afternoon. Maybe in the future Mark will take his big brother's advice, "Never ask a girl to go out right before her birthday!"
If any of you people who have 11 year-old girls, and I know there are a couple of you out there, want to chime in with any ideas, before you know, 5:00 this afternoon, I'd love to hear them!
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When you were in 5th or 6th grade and you were lucky enough to have an "exclusive" boyfriend (or girlfriend) what did you call it? We called it "going steady". If you were really lucky, your true love had one of those cool ID bracelets with their name engraved on it that they let you wear.
Fast forward 3+ freakin' decades a few years - it is now called "going out". My boys ask a girl to "go out" and then they never go any where. Mark has a girlfriend, it may be his first official one because the little girl that he has had a crush on all year hates him.
Mark: "I like K., but she doesn't like me."
Me: "She probably really does like you."
Mark: "No she doesn't, she hates me."
Me: "She doesn't hate you."
Mark: "Well that's what she told me."
Anyway, as luck would have it, Mark's new girlfriend's birthday is this Friday. Mark is wondering what to get her. Good grief. He has no ideas other than he doesn't think he should spend any more than $20. You think?
Also, C. (the new girlfriend) sent Mark an email and asked him to come to her pool party. I think I'm going to need something a little bit more "official", which I'm sure will earn me a "Mean Mom" award for this week.
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OK, April my blog entries have been a tad bit on the depressing side. I'm not doing that on purpose, it's just sort of the way things go some times. I've decided that May is going to be a great month, with nothing but good news. Now if everyone will cooperate, I would sure appreciate it!
Spring sports are winding down around here. Paul and Adam have both finished their baseball seasons except for the end of season celebrations. Tomorrow is my last tennis match of this season. Mark will play baseball through the end of May, and Adam still has indoor soccer. So, we are still busy, just a little less so.
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04/30/2008
My grandfather passed away last week. He will be greatly missed, but I believe that all of his family is comforted by the fact that he lived a long life, and that in the end, while challenged by physical struggles for several years, he was able to live mostly independently and was lucid and mentally competent. I count myself lucky that I was well into adulthood before any of my grandparents passed away, and into middle age (Yikes!), before I lost my last.
The past week has been a whirlwind of relatives, rememberances, services and cleaning out. Why is it that in today's time it seems nothing can bring a family together except for a funeral. I'm as guilty of that as the next guy - we probably all need to slow down a bit and quit taking so much for granted.
Rest in peace, Grandaddy. If it weren't for you, none of my world would exist.
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I came home from Florida, wanting to sell my house, to go live on a boat along the intercoastal waterway. Well, not really, but it was a really nice trip and the weather was awesome. After I returned home, I discovered that Volusia County Florida is the shark attack capital of the world. As a matter of fact, there was an attack the morning we left. I scratched that off the list of places to take the boys.
While we were in Daytona, we ate seafood every meal, at local restaurants overlooking the water. I also got a little bit adventurous in the beer department - something I don't usually do and discovered Landshark Lager. At first I figured that Landshark might be Florida's equivalent of Texas' Lone Star or Louisiana's Dixie - something only folks from out of town would drink. I've since found out that it is brewed by Anheuser-Busch, which normally would knock it down several pegs in my book, but I'm going to overlook that. I'll have to see if I can locate any around here, because I'm pretty sure that when you drink it, you can hear the ocean.
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Yesterday, I eluded to a change for me. Well, I've had a change of scenery. I've also escaped the dust, laundry, driving, more dust, more laundry, and more driving routine for 5 whole days.
Where am I? How about we play a little guessing game, no fair if you already know! The first clue is I've never been here before.
Next clue, this my friends is the Atlantic Ocean. That ought to narrow it down a bit for you.
Still not sure? Well, in the last 24 hours, I've discovered a couple of unique things about this beach. At least they are unique to me. First, you can drive on this beach. In the past I've worried about all sorts of things with my kids on the beach, jellyfish, sharks, stingrays, sunburn, getting swept away . . . but I can honetsly say, I've never been worried about them getting run over by a car.
Most beaches that I've been to have been overtaken by mega high rises or very upscale beach houses. There is plenty of that here too. But, there are also very modest beachfront homes.
You might also find a little "mom & pop" motel located right next to your super modern, swanky, condo complex.
Do you know yet? If not, and if you are a lighthouse aficionado, maybe this picture will help. I climbed all 203 steps to the top of this jewel. The trip down was much easier than going up!
This is not a picture clue, but this is the home of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. That is also the reason I am here. See, I tagged along with Eric on a business trip and he is on some board at the university and they have meetings the next couple of days.
If you haven't guessed yet, this next clue is a gimme. This is the birthplace of NASCAR and this is the view out of my hotel room window.
Surely, you've gotten it by now. But if not - here you go!
So there you have it. I'm on a little break in Daytona Beach. Eric had meetings today and will also have meetings most of the day tomorrow. I had fun exploring today. I'm not sure what I'll do tomorrow. Eric and I will have the weekend together before getting back to the normal grind.
Speaking of which, I really miss the boys! Somehow it doesn't seem right to be at the beach without them!
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04/16/2008
You know those commercials where the kids are stuck in the mom's camera? I am that mom right now. The cable to my camera, at least the camera that I like and use most often, has gone bad. Or maybe it is the camera itself. I haven't gone quite that far in the diagnosis. At the moment, I have to transfer my SD card to another camera to upload my pictures. Which doesn't seem like that big of deal as I type it. But it is somehow a big deal as I'm living it.
Things around here have been pretty much the status quo. School, scouts, baseball for the boys. Dust, laundry, driving, more dust, more laundry, and more driving for me.
However, all of that is going to change (for me anyway) this afternoon! Tune in tomorrow or Friday for details!
In the meantime, here are some pictures that I've rescued from my camera for your enjoyment.
Sunday afternoon, Eric boiled about 30 pounds of crawfish. For the uninitiated crawfish eater, 30 pounds may sound like a lot, but it's really not. I ate my requisite 3 or 4. Crawfish, not pounds. I don't really embrace my "Louisiana-ness" in the form of crawfish eating. We had some yankee friends over, who immigrated to Texas from Michigan about 20 years ago, and between the 5 of them, the three of us (Mark likes crawfish about as much as I do) and a friend of Adam's they polished them all off.
Paul looks like a pro as demonstrates how to eat a crawfish.
Adam and his friend Michael get in on the action.
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How many times have you heard that? Yesterday a friend of ours won the Republican nomination for district court judge by a mere 20 votes. Yes, 20 votes separated her from her opponent. Every vote really does count!
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