Long time

Good Lord, it's been a while since I've written anything. What got me back? A comment on one of my posts. LOL. I'd almost forgotten I'd kept a blog. LOL.

This'll just be some updates. Hope you don't mind. It's probably mostly just me airing out my brain. LOL.


Autism and School: Our son has started his third year of preschool (and last) and our daughter has started her first. Same school. Different teacher. I mean totally different. The teacher we had for the last two years has left the district. It was rather sudden and I was devastated! But then I met our new teacher... and the breath of life was given back to me. She's amazing... great energy and seems to have a whole new energy on how to run things with my son. He's also started a new therapy (ABA) and an extended day program. He goes to school from 9:55am to 3:40pm. He gets home on the bus at 4:10pm. I miss him all day long... but I think it's been really good for him. Fridays, he has a new speech therapist at the private clinic we got to... and I'm in love with her! LOL. She is a no non-sense gal and makes Liam do stuff and finish it rather than constantly changing the project to fit his whims. Things seem to be going great.

There was a bit of a hick-up for me the other day, though. With both my children now in preschool, it's much more obvious the differences. Especially since the morning program my daughter is in, is exactly the same program my son is in for the afternoon. They come home with the same art projects, letter writing sheets, etc. It's crazy how fast my daughter is absorbing all the information they're teaching her. And it's a totally new thing to me to have a child come home and tell me all about their day. Anyway, I had a bit of a moment (translate = melt-down crying session) when I saw an "About Me" book that both my kids did. My daughters was so thoroughly done and colorful. My son's? Not so much. And the page that said, My Friends, was completely blank. Kinda burst my heart for a sec. I cried, called my support team (translate = my mom and sister) and then collected myself and have trudged on. I'm still a work in progress in this area.

Marriage and Husbands: My husband and I just recently celebrated our 7th anniversary (3 days after my son's 5th birthday!!). My husband has been out of work since July 31st. Needless to say, we had to come up with something to do that didn't cost money we didn't have and we just weren't that creative. LOL. We literally, didn't know what to do with each other. My mother came up and babysat the kids. She jokes that she had to kick us out to spend time with each other. That makes it sound awful. LOL. We ended up checking out a park we've been meaning to maybe bring the kids to (and we determined it was worthy, fyi). Then we headed to the mall and walked around. It was mundane... and really great. I'm so lucky to be in love with my husband. Many marriages are failing in our neighborhood... and I sometimes get a bug in my shoe that it might be in the water. LOL. So far... so good. (Although there's a little family superstition around the 8th anniversary, so I've told my husband he has to make that special.) We've been strung along for the past three weeks on a possible job for my husband and should (I say this sarcastically, because there's been three other shoulds) receive word on whether he received the job or not tomorrow evening. (Please pray for us... we need this!)

Me-me, me-me, me: I'm doing alright. I'm weighing the most I've EVER weighed... and I'm trying to get on the right path. With the kids both at school, I have roughly 2 hours completely without children. My hubby and I have been using that opportunity to go to the gym together. When my daughter comes home and eats lunch, then heads to naptime. I have another 2 hours or so. I'm designing again with that time. I'm creating websites, personal and professional, I've designed logos, and am basically dusting off my degree. It's been nice. Kind of giving me a whole new sense of myself. I'm trying to get back to me.

And I think it might be working.

That's it for now... I'll try and be better about boring cyberspace with my life story. :)

a.

June 7th and lazy bones

June 7th... way long ago Sunday, was our Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5K walk. It was held in Seattle and thank goodness, it was not the sweltering temperatures it had been earlier in the week!


It was fun... TONS of people turned out! I loved the names! Tata Supporters, Check Your Chee-chees, Save Second Base... fun ideas. I loved the spirit of the crowd, fun and upbeat... it was all so normal. I wished we had been more creative with our name (Marvelous Mammaries - after my mom turned down her girlfriend's idea of anything with the word "perky" in it... LOL... we are definitely not a perky family, with boobs or anything else.) and attire. I'm thinking next year I might get some of my younger girlfriends to do it with me... and we'll be more crazy with our attire and name... and perhaps have a theme. LOL. "Anything for the boobs," as my husband would say.

I was totally relaxed and strolling with my mom and sister. It was no stress... other than the overwhelming crowd size and my annoying need to apologize to people who bumped into me! I was so proud of my mom for walking. I was proud of my sister for actually being there... to help me support our mom. I didn't get emotional... wasn't even thinking about being emotional... and then at the finish line... they gave my mom a medal. A damn medal. I teared up instantly. She so deserved it. And more. I had been feeling that we hadn't had a fitting celebration of her cancer-free self, completion of radiation, and year later-ness. This ended it for me... sealed the deal. She'd done it. Survived. She was a survivor... and everyone knew it (not just because of her pink shirt). It was emotion. Sudden and sharp. I was proud.


It really made me feel good to be "doing" something, too... anything... other than sitting on the couch, looking at four walls and having yet another day with my kids. I know that sounds awful to say... but my husband has been working long hours - through the weekend even - and I'm going a little insane from tiredness... and unfortunately, it's getting taken out on my kids... translating to more tv than they need and mommy meltdowns. LOL.

I am realizing (since today was Liam's last day of preschool - he has one more year of preschool, for a total of three, because of his late birthday) that it is now officially summer and I will have much, much, much more time with my children. I really need to come up with some better ideas than tv, food, coloring, and playdough... don't you think? So I've begun brianstorming a few ideas for this summer so that I don't feel like such a lazy a$$... erm bones. *grin* I'll let you know if I come up with anything that I actually follow through with... and by you, I mean my two followers who actually read about my boring life. LOL. (And I don't even update as I should!)

On another note... I have decided that some time this summer I will finish my late father-in-laws website that I committed to to get my mother-in-law off my back so that I can have a sense of accomplishment and pride. (I just got a serious case of deja vu - have I said this before? I'll have to go back through my blog and look.) AND (yes there's more) that I will attempt to submit some entries for a website that my mother-in-law found out about on the Today show and said I should check out... and well, I'm actually grateful. It's called 99designs.com and I think it's pretty cool. It's up to you how much work you put into your design... but it's up to them who wins and if you win you can BOOM have some cash! Great idea, huh? We'll see if I ever follow through with that... and/or whether I make any money. We'll see I guess.

I do need to just start drawing again... "Draw, draw, draw," always rings in my head in Mark Kistler's voice. I remember my college illustration major days when the professor would tell us instead of staring at the blank page to just start drawing anything... the room, your coffee, your keys... just to get your flow going. I can't tell you how often that worked for me... and how it improved my skills as an artist. But I haven't drawn in years...

And who wants to draw when Burn Notice and The Closer are back on! LOL. And now... I'm addicted to Royal Pains.

I need help.

About damn time...

I finished one half of my Procrastinated Project. I made a trip to Home Depot with the kids and found some hanging baskets of Petunias for $6.98. They were the cheapest hanging baskets there... and I decided that I didn't need dangling plants this year... especially since my plants never dangled last year. LOL. I did love the red though.


While there, I fell in love with this little daisy and just couldn't resist. Isn't she pretty? I'm sending my husband back to Home Depot later this afternoon to pick up some red spray paint so I can change this pot. I just had something different in mind, but I'm working with what I have.

I also bought some holders for our hoses. They're not beautiful, but they're way better than our hoses just being strewn about. I'll have to post pictures of the other one later. My husband hasn't hung it yet.

I just can't get away from spending money when I have a project. Or at least when I walk in a store. LOL. Maybe that's why I don't shop more often... I'd spend more often.

Procrastinating the Procrasti-Nation

So I'm officially the worst procrastinator there is. LOL. I wasn't even motivated enough by the public declaration of my projects! I even took it easy on myself, declaring light jobs that actually needed to be done and are pretty unsightly at the moment. You'd think that would be motivating too... but no. The neighbors are still staring at my empty hanging baskets... and anyone who steps in the house can see that I've polka-dotted my house with plaster. LOL. I really need to give myself a new deadline and get it done... make Melissa proud. Y'know... finish something... LOL.

The groom, Chris, my husband's best friend, and my hubby, the best man - damn straight!

On another note, I do have a good excuse. *grin* I went to a beautiful wedding the weekend (May 7th through the 10th) before the projects were supposed to be completed - in Virginia! So before, I was too stressed trying to get ready and making sure everything was taken care of here at home. And after... I had a bit of a hard time getting back into the swing of things. Bleck. Back to the old grind. My Mother's Day consisted of tossing out my favorite lotion, face wash (which was pretty expensive), and many other beauty products to get on a plane in time to return home. We were late arriving... so late that we didn't have time to check our one bag. Thus... anything over 4 ounces was tossed. And of course, it was all my stuff. *cry* But we did make the plane... and this is what I returned too:

Lovely, isn't it? I was panicked at first. My family, my mom and sister, who watched our kids while we were in Virginia, told me what had happened... and boy did it look worse than it really was! Especially when you first see it! The next day the main scab sluffed off and it looked fine... just a thin layer of scabbing. And of course, my daughter, Ironmaiden, was fine. She's such a toughy. *grin* But that was it... my Mother's Day. Fun, huh?


I did do a little something for my mom before we left. She loves our soaker tub, so I bought her a card, a scrubby, and some bath salts. I set it all out with my white towels and tied it neatly with a pretty ribbon. She was very tickled when she found it! I didn't do anything for my MIL... I guess I felt it was my hubby's responsibility and he was too busy thinking of the wedding and his best man duties. Oh well. Not my fault. *evil grin*

And neither is me not getting my projects done. *eviller grin*

Getting Ready

I'm so trying not to freak out about traveling to Virginia on Thursday... but I am. Call me irrational, but for some reason having both my husband and I on the same plane frightens me. If anything happened... it'd happen to BOTH of us. ARGH. Lets just hope it's Capt. Chesley B. Sullenberger III driving the plane!

Besides that... my son has been sick since last Friday and I haven't been able to get anything done. So I'm having to simplify my list and only get done the important things. Unfortunately, this means I haven't even started on my Procratination Party Projects! Those will have to wait until we return.

And of course, my MIL "had" to stop by yesterday to see the kids before we left... so that also took a day away. (My mom will be watching the kids while we're gone and I think my MIL wants to make sure they don't get too attached to my mom. LOL. Thus my kids always think that if they see one - Omi/MIL or Grandma/my mom - then the other one is right around the corner soon after. Which, in most cases, is true!) The best part of that visit though, was that it motivated me to straighten up my house! Now I just need to keep it clean for the week... that way my mom doesn't enter into a toddler bomb, as well as, an animal house. LOL.

I was hoping to not have to check a bag, but now I'm thinking that my husband and I will have to share a checked bag AND have our carry-ons! Have you seen all the requirements lately for even getting through the security lines? I'm doomed... so much to do... and so much left undone.

Guess we'll see how it all works out.

I can bake when I have to...

So in March, my mother celebrated her birthday... and every time I tried to put something together... whether with her friends or with my sister, it just didn't work out. I had found a cake that I wanted to bake for her on Parenting.com... but I thought it would be too weird to just make her a cake without a celebration, but alas, that's how it worked out. So here's my version of the purse cake. I think it turned out pretty great. My mom loved it... didn't eat a lick of it... but she did take it to work to show off and to have everyone else enjoy it. Apparently, it was pretty tastey.


What you don't see is my creative balancing act on the back side. I had to push some M&Ms underneath one side... because apparently, I don't cut all that straight. LOL. I hid it with more frosting. So no one knew... until they ate it. LOL.

I thought it turned out pretty cute... and was way easy to put together... the hard part was finding all the parts (the handle is a jumbo Tootsie Roll bar... the leaves green fruit roll ups... etc.). Thank goodness I have a wonderful husband who was willing to drive all around to find the necessary pieces.

When it's the thought that counts... and all your thoughts don't seem to work out... at least bake a cake. :)

Late Easter

Okay... I'm lazy and just posting this now... Easter is long past... but I'm kind of proud of how I decorated for it, so I thought I'd make 4 Reluctant Entertainer proud and show what I did. I set everyone with a different color and just folded a piece of paper to write their names in the color as well (keeping it simple... but still wanting to be in control of where people sat - lol). I had an extra guest last minute, so I just threw in the lavender place setting.


I had fun looking up how to fold the napkins to look like little bunnies... but learned later that it works best with thinner napkins. To make it stay put, I just tied them off with a simple white ribbon that each guest could untie when they needed their napkin.


I even did something a little similar for my kids at their little table with paper napkins (much harder to fold!!) and paper plates. My daughter thought she was pretty special... which worked out, because I thought they might be a little disappointed at not sitting at the grown up table.


My husband is the real cook in our family! He made a delicious ham and green bean casserole. My mother brought a very tasty potato dish and my sister brought some appetizers that were gobbled up within seconds, I swear. I did contribute with a pretty nummy apricot cheesecake, if I do say so myself!


All in all, it was a great meal... and a fun day! My favorite part is the decorating... not so much the cooking... wish someone would have instilled me with that!

Is there a shot for that out there somewhere?!